>>441 >institutional backwardness. I won't argue that this did not have part in the Russian defeat. But it has many other particles and concentrating solely on this is a result of a bias which confirms of own bias. Similar bias was the classical Japanese narration when they attributed their victory for Russians underestimating them. Sure it was part of it to some extent too. I read at Yalu the Japs had larger howitzers. Big guns are a good thing and surely had impact on the outcome of the battle. Now someone would say Japs were smart to get those guns for their army, others might focus on how stupid Russians were they did not. It's a matter how we choose to perceive the question. Due to the narration regarding the war, the defeat overshadows the diplomatic successes Russia could accomplish. They quite slyly managed to oust Japan from Manchuria and Korea, they secured an agreement to build a railway shortcut through Manchuria to Vladivostok, lease Port Arthur basically indefinitely, and set up a pro-Russian government in Korea. They reached all this with diplomacy. Noone gives Moscow the due it would deserve. To unravel this result, the Japanese needed a war. That is not so sly. But noone cares because it was a shining victory on a major European power who could only use the fragment of it's own forces and resources. But if Manchuria and Korea weren't in the hand of Russia, confrontation couldn't have been avoided either. And Russia could have lose more, from the longer held territories. Also another bias I see (on the internet and at least in one book I dl'd hastily) is calling the Russian far east expansion an "encroachment" - but not what other powers, including Japan, did. Japan's expansion only became "problematic" when they started to eye British and American possessions.
>>446 The far east acquisitions were relatively recent, things were just solidifying there. The railroad was a very new thing, and quite ambitious. Considering how other powers fucked up their similar African endeavors, the Tran-Siberian line was successful. Did read that Japs couldn't use the railroad for the Russian wide gauge. Japs ordered engines and carriages that wide but the ships were sunk. (At least a couple of stuffs were done well by the Russians.)
